Deutsche Oper Berlin's Salome was a mixed blessing: a magnificent Catherine Naglestad as the heroine, with good ensemble of singers and orchestra, but a thoughtful but far-fetched psychological interpretation.

What makes this production of The Rape of Lucretia stand out is the singers’ acting. It’s immediate, it’s integrated into the singing, and it’s better than anything I’ve seen in any opera production before.

Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos amuses in a concert version put on by the Deutsche Oper at the Philharmonie in Berlin, with good performances from Meagan Miller (Ariadne) and Susanne Elmark (Zerbinetta).

Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Ariadne auf Naxos was first performed in 1912, in a production directed by Max Reinhardt. Unlike the version usually seen today, this first Ariadne was a long-winded play-opera-ballet hybrid, incorporating a full production of Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme with dances to incidental music by Strauss followed by the short opera.